Real-Life Rapunzel, 12-Year-Old Natasha Moraes de Andrade From Brazil, Sells Hair To Buy New Home For Her Family (PHOTOS)

First Posted: 04/26/12 03:37 PM ETUpdated: 04/27/12 11:12 AM ET

share this story

A real-life Rapunzel from Brazil has cut off her long locks for the first time in her life to give her family the fairytale home they always dreamed of, The Huffington Post UK reports.

Natasha Moraes de Andrade, 12, has been making waves with her long hair for years.

Nicknamed 'Rapunzel' by her schoolmates, Natasha has not cut her hair -- which at 5 feet, 2 inches long was only one inch shorter than her petite frame -- since she was a baby, the Sun reports.

But, as her mother Catarina pointed out, Natasha's hair had turned her into a "prisoner".

"I used to be afraid every time I went out that someone would grab my hair or try to cut it off," Natasha said, according to the Daily Mail, adding that it used to take her four hours every week to wash her long tresses and an hour and a half daily to brush it.

Finally, after years of stress, Natasha felt it was time to let go -- recently cutting her hair into a more manageable shoulder-length style, the Daily Mail reports.

With the $4,800 she earned from selling her hair, Natasha, who lives in a small, window-less room in a shanty town in Rio de Janeiro, is planning on getting a new house for her and her family, the Sun reports.

Scroll down for an image of Natasha with her new hair.

"Getting it cut has given me a new life," the schoolgirl said, stressing that she can now also do a lot of things which she couldn't do before.

With her new hairdo, Natasha said that she has been able to go cycling and to the beach. Her family added that they can now turn on the fan in the house without being afraid of Natasha's hair getting caught in it.

"I thought it would stop when I had it cut, but people still stop me in the street," she said. "If I had a daughter of my own, she would also be a princess, but she would be Snow White, not Rapunzel. That would be much more practical."